


The King is Dead. Long Live the Queen!

by MhaighdeanBhanUasal



Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Engagement, F/M, Fluff, Indigenous Character, Kinda, Light Angst, One Shot, Political Treason, Political conspiracy, Prompt: “Look! A shooting star! Make a wish!”, Stargazing, Young Love, young Agnarr, young Iduna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26188360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MhaighdeanBhanUasal/pseuds/MhaighdeanBhanUasal
Summary: They looked at each other, and a star crossed their eyes. Let there be light. Great minds think alike. The Child King and the Child Queen had the same idea at the exact same time. King Runeard had enemies— among the other Northern Kingdoms, for example. And as for internal rivals, the industrial bourgeois was in a constant power struggle with the Crown over the control of the national economy. The Northuldra in the north still chewed on their resentment like an old piece of meat. Agnarr and Iduna were small, quick and smart, and the stability of King Runeard’s government was sustained only by spite, luck and sheer willpower. Someone with the right information could… tip the balance the other way.
Relationships: Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	The King is Dead. Long Live the Queen!

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was suggested by @gryfon-spanish-werewolf on Tumblr: “Look! A shooting star, make a wish”. Thank you! I had a lot of fun writing this! I couldn't get the idea out of my head and this prompt fit perfectly :D

“Look!” Iduna’s childish laugh reached his ears. “Agnarr! Look!”

Agnarr chuckled and closed his book. Arithmetics be damned. He could be bored some other day.

“What are you up t— Iduna!” His heart gave a leap. She was walking on her hands, feet in the air, on a railing 60 feet from the ground. “Iduna, stop! What are you doing!?”

“I’m— Ow!” Her legs swayed from side to side. Agnarr rushed to her and helped her down onto the balcony. “It was much easier back in the forest”

“You could have died!”

“Oh, come on! I wouldn’t have let it come to that!”

“B-but you don’t decide that! It’s gravity!”

“But we’re not that high up here,” she leaned over the railing to see the courtyard below. “A-Are we?”

Agnarr slapped his face. Girls were unbearable. Father was right: they did whatever they wanted and never listened. 

“Well, don’t do it again” he puffed his chest and put his hands on his hips. “Prince’s ord— AH! Iduna!”

She laughed and dug her fingers into his sides, tickling him mercilessly until he was laughing himself breathless and bending over into a ball on the ground.

“S-stop!” He shouted. 

“Does his Highness submit?” Iduna giggled.

“I submit! The Northuldra won!”

“Yes!” Iduna let go of him and punched the air. “Another victory for the northerners!” She offered Agnarr a hand and helped him up. He felt something warm in his stomach when her skin touched his. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself! You looked like a puffin standing like that”

“Well, glad to see the Prince is respected by his people”

“You’re no Prince of mine” Iduna stuck out her tongue. “I’m not Arendellian”

Agnarr was about to say something about how obvious it was (only a Northuldra girl would wear pants and disrespect her Prince like that), but at that moment Iduna gasped and pointed at the dark sky above them.

“Look!” She exclaimed. She jumped back onto the railing and walked (this time on her feet) along its length until she could hold onto the fascia of the roof and pull herself up. 

“Iduna, don’t!”

“Come on!” She protested, struggling to pull herself up without the use of magic. Agnarr didn’t even try to stop her. Northuldreans had no regard for orders, anyways. Father was right about that (and about girls).

But he was wrong about everything else.

Iduna finally managed to put her feet on the roof and climb up its steep side. A hand hung from the edge.

“So? Are you coming?” Her head peeked upside down from the edge. “Or are you a puffin?”

“I’m not a puffin! I’m a Prince!”

She made a low, flat grunt that sounded more like a pig or a factory chainsaw than a puffin (but then again, what did he know? He wasn't the one who grew up in the arctic).

“Yeah, the prince of puffins!” She laughed. 

“I’m not! And I’ll show you!”

He took her hand, and the tingling warmth made him forget how to walk. Thankfully, Iduna managed to guide him and help him up onto the roof with her. It was very,  _ very  _ steep, and he had to cling to the tiles with both hands. Along the edge, wide steel spikes no more than five inches long formed a tiny wall where he could push his feet against and not fall to his  _ death _ . He had the impression the spikes looked a bit like crocus petals.

“See? It wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Agnarr opened his mouth to protest, but he realized that would make him look like a puffin. In front of  _ Iduna _ .

“Not at all,” he said instead, laying back on the roof and crossing his arms behind his head. “Easiest thing I’ve ever done”

“Mmm. I see” Iduna raised an eyebrow. Her feet were resting against the spikes next to his, holding her up. She still wore her pointy reindeer skin boots. She laid down with him. “Look”

Agnarr looked up, trying to see what she meant. The black sky was peppered by a million suns, arching over their heads like a slit, an open wound.

“What?” He asked. “They’re only stars”

“There are no lights,” Iduna explained.

“Sure there are!” Agnarr argued. “Look at the stars!”

“No, you puffin!” Iduna slapped his arm. “The northern lights. They’re not here tonight” she sat up and hugged her knees, neck twisted uncomfortably to look at the sky. “I… I’d never noticed how different the stars look down here” she mumbled. Her happy demeanor vanished. Her shoulders dropped. “The Star of the Arctic is much closer to the horizon”

Agnarr squinted.

“You mean the Polar Star?” He asked. Said star didn't look close to the horizon  _ at all  _ to him. “'Star of the Arctic' is kind of a mouthful”

“Shut up” Iduna muttered. “It sounds better in Northuldrean”

She fell silent after that. Agnarr cranked his neck to take a look at her. She was looking at the pointy tips of her boots. Her brown hair had been pulled into a tight bun, rather than braided away from her face and falling free down her shoulders. Still, individual strands rebelliously curled out of their binds, hairs sticking out like a loose ball of cotton. She wore boy clothes, and the buttons of her waistcoat were confused and poorly buttoned. Her sleeves, dirty and rolled up from working in the factory. The pockets of her pants were swollen from stuffing so much fabric in them, and a blood-red tail fell from a corner. A lot of people would say she looked scrappy or dirty. Agnarr thought she looked comfortable.

He reached out and pulled from the red-blood tail, and the silky shawl came sliding out of her pocket, until it was empty as a hollow frog carcass. The fabric was wrinkly but clean, and he did his best to smooth it out before throwing it around her shoulders. She gripped the shawl tight enough for her knuckles to become white. Still, she did not look at him. 

Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He tapped her shoulder and, in an instant, both children raised their heads to see the flash of light.

“Look! A shooting star!” Agnarr exclaimed, elbowing her gently. “Make a wish!”

Iduna pressed her lips into a tight line. Then, she gracelessly got to her feet. She stood on the edge of the roof, just against the crocus spikes, and with her arms extended to the sides she walked along the line between life and death.

“I wish to go home,” she said, and Agnarr didn’t have the heart to tell her she shouldn't cry her wish out loud. “I wish to see my family again”

Agnarr opened his mouth to say something like ‘I’m sorry’, but Iduna’s eyes fixed on him, like that of a sea eagle preying on a puffin. 

“What would  _ you  _ wish for?” She spat. 

The question caught him off-guard. The idea of making a wish for himself hadn’t even crossed his mind when the star flew past.

_ I wish for you to go home. _ No. He didn’t want to say goodbye to her, and he didn’t want to make it sound like that was the case.

_ I wish your people to be safe. _ Was that too serious? He didn’t want to remind her of the fact that she and her people were not safe. Although, of course, the fear lived in her mind like a sleeping viper, striking at the worst moments and impossible to kill.

_ I wish you happiness. _ Ew! Too dumb and cheesy. Backtrack!

“I wish to make things better,” he said lamely. Iduna looked down at him, and he couldn't tell what she was thinking if you put a gun to his head. He always felt guilty when she looked at him like that. It was when they both remembered he was Arendellian, and she was Northuldra, and a Northuldrean was never safe among Arendellians.

He felt like a bad person, and the worst part is that deep down, he found no voice inside to tell him he was not.

Was he hurting her? Could he do more for her? Why wasn’t he?

Her head snapped forward and she continued walking.

“I also wish for a gun,” she said. “To defend myself. And I want my reindeer back. All of them. And I’ll use my gun to defend them from Arendellians who want to steal them”

“That could be arranged, actually,” Agnarr suggested. “I wish for a sword, so I can fight like Mattias, and not depend on my Father to choose everything for me”

“I wish for a dress,” Iduna continued. “I mean, these clothes are more comfortable. But I hate how people look at me”

She held her scarf behind her with two hands. The triangular shawl waved in the wind like a flag.

“And I wish for the power to change things,” Agnarr said, taking mental note of the dress part.

“I wish for safety”

“I wish for justice”

“I wish for my future children to grow free”

“And without fear”

“And to never be scared”

“I wish to create a better world”

“To be strong and powerful and never be  _ helpless  _ again”

“I wish to be King”

“I wish the King was dead”

Iduna nearly lost balance and fell off the roof as soon as the words left her mouth. She knelt and dug her fingers between the tiles to hold herself steady. Her eyes fixed on Agnarr’s and her mouth opened and closed uselessly trying to find the words.

“O-oh my goodness, Agnarr, I  _ swear  _ I didn’t mean that!”

His jaw dropped. A colorless sound was the only thing in his mind for a moment. He swallowed thickly.

_ I wish to be King. _

“I-it’s okay,” he said. “I know. That you didn’t mean it, I mean”

She was frozen still for a moment, and then she slowly lied back down on the roof. There was a significant space between them now, and he could still tell she was shaking. They did not speak. An uncomfortable silence covered them, and suddenly they felt observed by the stars above.

“I’m not going to hurt you” Agnarr blurted out. 

Iduna gulped. Her throat bobbed up and down.

“I-I know”

She wrapped her arms around her own body, like a mother. Her mother could no longer hold her. 

“Agnarr?” She asked.

“What is it?”

He looked at her, but she looked at the sky, and her hands were still shaking like leaves.

“If I married you,” she said. “Would I become Queen?”

He blinked. Then blushed. The blood rushed up to his neck, face and ears and he had the sudden impulse to cover his face.

“W-what…? Uh…”

“N-never mind” Iduna sat up and hugged her knees. “It was dumb”

“Uh… no!” He jerked up like he’d been hit by lightning. “I-I mean, not that I want to marry you. Not that I like you. N-not that I  _ dislike  _ you! But if you want to be… Queen… Ugh, this is coming off so wrong!” He hid his face in his hands. Iduna didn’t laugh at his embarrassment, which only heightened his concern. “What I mean is… I will be King someday, a-and if I could choose anyone to be… I don’t know! To rule at my side and be my partner, I guess. I’d want it to be you. Yeah. Because… you’re my best friend. And you're the person I trust the most.”

There! Best friend! That would make it less awkward. Just two friends, getting married. Probably producing heirs someday. Platonically.

“Are you proposing to me, Agnarr?”

Oh, shit.

“Uh…” He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “Are  _ you  _ proposing to  _ me _ ?”

“Ugh. This would be a very boring proposal,” she said with a scrunched up nose. “I always thought a boy would propose to me surrounded by reindeer. Now  _ that  _ is a proposal”

“I’m sorry I don’t have any reindeer”

“I’m sorry you’re poor”

Agnarr snorted. 

“You don’t have a crush on me or anything, do you?” He asked. Iduna’s eyes widened and her face turned red.

“O-of course I don’t!” She hissed. “Like you said! We’re best friends!  _ Obviously _ , being best friends is better than being boyfriend and girlfriend”

“Oh, definitely” Agnarr agreed, pushing back the tinge of disappointment from his voice.

“We’d be a… a team” Iduna concluded, straightening her back and puffing out her chest, like a puffin. “The King and Queen of Arendelle”

“We can’t get married until we’re eighteen” Agnarr reminded her. “But if you’re willing to wait four years, then, y-yeah! Let’s do it!”

He was suddenly really excited about the idea of marrying Iduna. They could have sleepovers every night and tell everyone what to do, and no one at the factory would scare her or grab her. She’d be free to speak her language and visit her family, and Agnarr would always have a friend by his side whenever he had to make difficult decisions. She could protect the Northuldra, and he could keep Arendelle in check. Most importantly, the idea of sharing his life with Iduna did something to his heart. It made him feel like he had light inside of him. Who better than Iduna to be his partner in crime? He was unable to imagine anyone else.

Iduna smiled shyly, barely showing her teeth. 

“You’ll have to convince your father,” she said.

“...Yeah,” he nodded. “That will be a problem”

“Does this mean we’re engaged now?”

“I’d have to get you a ring,” he mentioned.

“And I’d have to gift you a few reindeer,” she said. “But I don’t have any”

They sat together under the milky way, surprisingly comfortable with their new arrangement. 

“It’ll be a long time until we become King and Queen, though” Agnarr commented. Iduna sighed.

“I’m sorry I said that before,” she said. “I mean… he’s still your dad”

Agnarr nodded.

“He is”

“Do you love him?”

He actually had to take a moment to think about his answer. The obvious one was ‘yes, because he’s my Father', but when he rummaged inside his heart for a clear picture, he found nothing but artificially constructed nostalgia, an unnerving desire to please and a hysteric need to be smiled at. The obvious answer was still ‘yes’, but when asked to elaborate, he could not utter a word. It was a delicate ice sheet, and it cracked under the echo of Iduna’s voice. Below, the water was dark, mysterious and scary, so he reinforced the ice and insisted the answer was ‘yes’? Why? Doesn’t matter. You’re asking the wrong question.

Iduna seemed to notice his silence, because she came up with a different question, to make him think:

“Is there a way to get the throne without killing him?” She asked. “I-I mean, without him dying. Hypothetically, of course”

“He’d have to abdicate,” Agnarr replied automatically, not minding that what they were doing was treason. “Which he won’t”

Iduna nodded.

“Abdication sounds like a lot of paperwork”

“It is if you want it to be legal”

“Ugh. Does it  _ have  _ to be legal?”

“Are you suggesting we coup the King?”

“You make it sound bad”

They looked at each other, and a star crossed their eyes. Let there be light. Great minds think alike. The Child King and the Child Queen had the same idea at the exact same time. King Runeard had enemies— among the other Northern Kingdoms, for example. And as for internal rivals, the industrial bourgeois was in a constant power struggle with the Crown over the control of the national economy. The Northuldra in the north still chewed on their resentment like an old piece of meat. Agnarr and Iduna were small, quick and smart, and the stability of King Runeard’s government was sustained only by spite, luck and sheer willpower. Someone with the right information could… tip the balance the other way. 

“Did I just suggest we coup the King?” Iduna asked. Agnarr grinned.

“I think you did,” he laughed. He stood up and took her hand. “Come on. I think we both had the same idea”

The destiny of the King and Queen was something no one but themselves could imagine. Something wicked. Something dangerous. They signed a contract that night, of love, yes, but also of a  _ mission _ . Alone, together against the world. King Runeard had his days numbered.

**Author's Note:**

> (I want to take a moment to clarify that coups are bad and democracy is good but also, this is a disney princess movie so sadly democracy was never an option :( Also technically, "coup" isn't the right word because it wouldn't suppose a regime change, only a government change. so there's that too. it's more of a conspiracy i think).


End file.
